Photos Provided Jake Kios and his daughter, Linda Fabrizio, co-own Domestic Sewing Center in Warren, Ohio. The duo is not letting the coronavirus slow them down.

WARREN, Ohio — He may be closing in on a century of life, but Jake Kois refuses to let the threat of a deadly virus — or anything else, for that matter — slow him down. In fact, the 91-year-old said he’s never going to retire, and not even a broken hip will change his mind.

Kois and his daughter, Linda Fabrizio, co-own Domestic Sewing Center in Warren, Ohio. Kois started the business in 1956, and for six days a week since then, he has been helping customers learn about and find the right sewing machines and accessories for their needs.

“We don’t sell regret,” said Kois, a self-proclaimed “goodwill ambassador.”

Providing friendly, personal service to each customer is what has kept him in business, and business was booming until the spread of COVID-19 slowed things down. It certainly hasn’t stopped this duo, though. They have repairs to do for those who are on a mission to provide protective masks to help lessen the spread of the virus.

During a recent call, Kois said he was “busy as ever, but we don’t mind that.”

The father-daughter pair are the company’s only full-time employees. Since the stay-at-home order has been in place in Ohio, the business has shifted its focus from daily interaction with customers to leading an army of domestic warriors to combat the novel coronavirus by making face masks for health care workers.

The company has participated in a blanket donation program called “Blankets of Love” for more than 15 years, but with the onset of COVID-19, they switched to what they are calling “Masks of Love.” Since hospitals are not currently taking in the blankets, and the need for masks is overwhelming, women from all over the county are taking on the task.

“Those women that sew, their husbands can’t keep them at home,” Kois said. “It’s like a club … And I’ll tell you what, that “Blankets of Love” brings them in from everywhere.”

The ladies normally meet every other Tuesday at the sewing room inside the Domestic Sewing Center. They stay there all day long into the evening, sewing blankets to be distributed to the hospitals. The materials are all donated by customers. Those same ladies are now making masks from home.

The Domestic Sewing Center has limited its hours of operation because of the virus and currently provides curbside service only, Fabrizio added.

“Our major and most important aspect of our business right now is to keep the customers’ machines up and running and also selling machines so they can continue making masks for the community,” Fabrizio said. “They’re making them … and I’m getting them out to the hospitals.”

Fabrizio said they have used 350 to 400 yards of elastic since starting three weeks ago. One customer donated more than 400 yards of elastic, and it was distributed in 10-yard increments to the ladies who are making the masks. The fabric comes from the store’s stock normally used for “Blankets of Love.”

Fabrizio said their sewing machine suppliers are having a difficult time filling orders, which is affecting the whole sewing machine industry. She said the need is great right now for machine repairs and maintenance to keep mask production strong.

“I would say probably today alone I had 25 calls from people wanting me to repair their machines,” Fabrizio said last week.

She said because she’s working alone and has very limited hours right now, she has to decide whose machines she services. Currently, that means only her returning customers.

“Hopefully, we will be able to help our customers continue the goal of lessening the spread of the coronavirus,” she added. “These ladies are desperate to make the masks.”

She added that there is an elastic shortage at this time, and if they run out, they will have to consider producing some type of tie-on mask instead.

She added that because President Trump announced that everyone should be wearing a mask when they go outside of their homes, there has been a huge demand for the facial apparatus.

“This has really created a lot of panic,” Fabrizio said.

She then went on to explain that their goal is to get the masks to the hospitals for those who need them most — even if the general public wants the masks they are making as well.

“There’s only so many you can do,” she said. “So, all the ones that get donated to me will still go to hospitals and nursing homes. I’m not going to divy them out to somebody’s aunt or uncle; that’s not what this is about.”

When in full swing, the small business employs a handful of part-time workers in addition to Fabrizio and Kois, but right now they are down to the bare minimum. Fabrizio is handling repairs and sales for core customers, while Kois is recuperating from hip surgery.

He’s eager to get back to the grind, though, even if his daughter said he should be off for at least a month.

The business is usually bustling, offering sewing classes several days per week, with clients from ages 10 to 100 learning how to sew their first stitch or how to use one of the more advanced machines for elaborate or intricate jobs.

Kois said new sewing machines, by BabyLock and Janome, range in price from $1,000 to $20,000.

“The senior citizens are spending their inheritance money,” Kois said of those who purchase the high-end machines. “It’s a hobby with them. We’ve got people that are in their 80s buying machines like that, and then we’ve got to teach them how to use them.”

Modern sewing machines are technologically advanced, with computers inside them, so it can be complex to learn how to use them.

Kois even sells embroidery machines that you program and “you can watch a television program while your machine’s sewing,” he said. “They do everything but talk to you. These older women are fascinated. They can’t believe how progress has moved along.”

He has been serving generations of families who keep coming back for his service with a smile and a firm handshake that, to him, means a lot more than just words on paper.

“This is the most important thing,” he said. “I’ve got some families with 17, 18 machines in the same family. And that’s exactly how I treat every one of them.”

Kois started out as a young man full of determination and ideas — and a few sewing machines. Three, to be exact, before amassing almost 1,100 machines in his store currently.

The center is one of the oldest family-run businesses in the county, Fabrizio noted. Warren is located in Trumbull County in northeastern Ohio.

Kois started the store with his wife, Dorothy, who Fabrizio said was in it for quite a while. After Dorothy passed away about 25 years ago, however, Fabrizio stepped in to take the helm alongside her dad.

“He’s Mister Social Bug,” Fabrizio said of her father. “He loves to visit with the customers and he always has a story to tell. It’s kind of neat. It’s just really nice to have him in the business.”

She said customers appreciate his expertise and knowing that they will always see a familiar face when they come into the store. She also said that she admires her father for working so hard at his advanced age.

“They always say, ‘If you rest, you rot,'” she noted with a laugh. “I think it’s so true. If you keep busy, you stay a lot younger and healthier longer.”

Kois, meanwhile, said he will keep working because he doesn’t consider it work.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “You know, a lot of people have hobbies. Well, this is my hobby and it pays me.”

Kois noted that they were featured as Dealer of the Month in the U.S. in the September 2013 edition of SQE Professional trade magazine. Other business owners often ask him how they have managed to not only stay afloat, but to thrive while many other businesses in the same field have gone under.

They also ask him why he didn’t switch to another more lucrative field. His response to that has always been that he knows the sewing machine business well, and that’s why he’s stayed with it through the years.

“They just keep coming,'” he said of his customers. “Believe me. I bet I’ve got 60 families that come up from Wheeling, West Virginia, 40 families coming from Ashtabula (Ohio), I get them from all over Western Pennsylvania. … Columbus, Ohio, they come from everywhere.”

And even despite the global pandemic, Kois said his business is still selling a machine a day.

“Treat them right,” he said, “and they’ll keep coming back.”